It was the kind of confident talk befitting of a club that were unbeaten in 11 games before the season was suspended and increasingly sure they are on the right path.

Two transfers window in to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Manchester United rebuild things are beginning to come together. All five signings have made significant contributions and recent performances have suggested the future is brighter than it has been for a while.

The summer transfer window was due to herald the next stage in Solskjaer's masterplan. A playmaker such as Jack Grealish or James Maddison is on the list, as is Jadon Sancho, who would not only improve the attack but would be the kind of statement signing that United need.

However, the coronavirus outbreak has thrown so much around the game out of kilt. The summer transfer window is on hold, for now, with finishing this season taking precedent, while the financial state of clubs across Europe is perilous, at best, and grave in some cases.

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There are plenty of clubs out there that are unsure what state they will come out of this hiatus in. Sales of star names may be enforced, wage bills may need to be slashed.

There are some clubs that will be mostly immune to the loss of revenue that is crippling the game and they will be circling their prey, eyeing up a bargain or two as other clubs fight for their future in a post-pandemic game. We knew that already, it goes without saying, which makes the fact Solskjaer felt the need to say it all the more unusual.

“Who knows how the market is going to react to this? Who knows which clubs need to sell players?," the United boss said.

“There might be just a situation there where you can exploit, and I know that we at United, we're one of the biggest, and the biggest, financially well-off.”

To be fair to Solskjaer, Gary Neville, asking the questions for Sky Sports, used the word 'exploit' in the question and later issued an apology for his phraseology on Twitter. Yet it's the kind of statement that will create resentment. It may be that by saying what everyone was thinking, Solskjaer makes it harder for United to "exploit" those situations rather than easier.

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For starters, he's already chronicled United's belief that they will come through this crisis relatively unscathed financially, with the funds to press on with their business in the next transfer window. In negotiations for players such as Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes United have been desperate not to set a precedent that they will be held to ransom in the transfer market, no longer will they pay a 'Manchester United tax' on signings, yet now selling clubs will be aware that they have funds to play with this summer. That is not going to strengthen United's hand in negotiations.

There is also a moral side to this. Some of football's giants will be eyeing up potential players at clubs who are struggling now, but hearing a manager say it out loud, to talk of 'exploiting situations' while some clubs fear for their very existence, is unlikely to go down well in the game.

Solskjaer is right what he's said, but might have been better keeping his counsel this time. Plenty of others have spoken about how the transfer market is going to be shaken up by the cash flow crisis in the game at the moment.

Christian Seifert, chief executive officer at the Bundesliga, told the New York Times: “In the short term I would say the transfer market this summer will not exist, it will collapse.

"Some agents will suddenly understand that they will have to work hard, or at least work; some leagues will understand that money is nothing that is coming automatically every month from heaven.”

That is probably an extreme view. There will inevitably be clubs who see this as an opportunity to strengthen their hand, that is how the game works. But having barely put a foot wrong recently, Solskjaer didn't need to disclose United's intentions to do just that.

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